No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible...A thorough understanding of the Bible is better than a college education. Within the covers of this one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems we face today. If only people would read it and believe!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

It is Saturday Morning January 31st and as I sit at my desk this morning I was thinking about a statement that I made, not too long ago, to my Cousin. It has been on my mind for some time now and I feel like it is time for me to stress this point with all my friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord and put my thoughts of what I'm thinking in print.
I recently told my cousin that there is not many of our elders left in the family line to carry on the family traditions. There will soon be nobody to tell the history of our great family. The elders of the family are almost all gone. They are leaving us and going on to their reward. All the cousins, who are the younger generation, will have to carry on our name and keep in touch with each other to keep the family name and its rich history intact. To tell the stories of our fore fathers and their father's father. How soon we would forget if it was not passed down from generation to generation, family to family, and reunion to reunion.
This is the same way that God wants the Church to work. We need to pass down to our children and their children's children the wonderful blessings that Our Lord and Savior have bestowed on us as His Children. The remembrances' of the Camp Meetings, the Brush Arbor Meetings, The Revivals, and all the miracles that we witnessed should be told to our younger generation. We need to tell all that we witnessed about God's miracles and His Almighty Power. As Christians it is our heritage.
Was this not what God commanded the Hebrews to do in the Old Testament? They were to teach and tell their children of God's Commandments, His love, and how He rolled back the waters of the mighty Red Sea. How He fed them with manna from above and all the other miracles that happen. As God's people are we not to do the same? Think about that question. The answer to that question is yes and amen.
The fact of the matter is this, There is a falling away today of God's People, a falling away from His standards that was set for us so long ago. There is a reason for this and it all starts in the home at a very young age. Most people are no longer teaching their children the Biblical Values that we were taught when we were growing up. In fact most kids are taught nothing about God or His great works. We wonder why our country is like it is. We must realize as a nation that professes God that it is the home were all training starts and this is where good (Godly) leaders come from. It is the home where the seeds of, right and wrong, the Church, the commandments, Jesus and His love, are planted.
The seeds of wrong are already being planted in the minds and hearts of our children today by the government, the schools, and yes even some Churches that have turned from the truth and believed a lie. What do I mean by wrong? Telling our kids it is okay for Adam to marry Steve, and starting sex education in kindergarten when it should be taught in the home at a later age. Telling our kids it is nothing wrong with murdering unborn babies, removing the Bible and prayer from the class room.
One of the greatest blessings in my life is that I was raised in a Christian Home that did teach, instruct, and bring me up in the right way. Those three things have never left me and as my children grew up I did the same thing for them as my parents did for me. Now my grandchildren are being instructed the same way by their mother's and father's. Not only is it a Christian duty but it should be a family tradition to tell the future generations about our Savior and His love. If we sow good seeds now our children will reap the benefits later.

Friday, January 30, 2009

If I happened to show up on your door step crying, would you Care? If I called you and asked you to pick me up because something Happened, would you come? If I had one day left, to live my life; would you be part of that last day? If I needed a shoulder to cry on, would you give me yours?

This is a test to see who your real friends are or if you are just someone to talk to you when they are bored.

Do you know what the relationship is between your two eyes? They blink together, they move together, they cry together, they see things together and they sleep together,

BUT THEY NEVER SEE EACH OTHER

That's what friendship is.This is a lonely life without friends. Send this to all your good friends,

Let them know you are their friend and let them know that there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Persecuted Church: Did you know there are thousands of Christian Churches in countries, all over this world today, that are denied the freedom of worship. The people in authority will arrest believers for gathering together to worship Christ? Yes that is true. There is no freedom of religion in a lot of countries today, like we enjoy that wonderful freedom here. A freedom not many citizens take advantage of or even think about. Imagine living in a country where you, as a Christian, will answer the door at your dimly lit house and ever so quietly invite other Christians in. You then make sure no one was followed, as they come into your house. Everybody then, ever so quietly, goes down to the basement where all the windows are closed and painted over, so no intruder or uninvited guest can look inside. You and the people that are gathered together then sing gospel songs from the depths of your heart, ever so quietly. the preacher delivers his sermon, ever so quietly. Then everybody prays, ever so quietly. Then everybody worships the Lord, ever so quietly. The preacher reads from an old Bible as everyone gathers around, ever so quietly. The congregation only dare to have one Bible at a time in the worship service. Then the service being ended your Christian friends go up the stairs from the basement and go out the door cautiously and ever so quietly. This is how some of our brothers and sisters worship the Lord in other countries. What a saddening thought. In those countries there is no piano music, no organ music, no Church bells ringing to proclaim church is about to start. In fact there are no churches except in secret meetings places such as the basement above. The buildings that once served as churches in these countries are setting empty or being used for something else.

We as Christians, who live in America, are so blessed because we still have the freedom of worship that we can call on the name of the Lord, but yet it is time for us to set watchmen over the land. More and more of our religious freedoms are taking from us as time goes by, most of the time it is Satan using the very people, who call their self Christians, that we elect to public office to make changes for us. This country was founded many years ago on Christian Principles, but every so slowly, ever so quietly the leaders in our land are taking away our Christian liberties. Liberties that just a few years ago where common placed through out the land. During the past fifty years we have seen The Ten Commandments taken from our court rooms, Bibles, Bible reading, and prayer, removed from the class room in our schools, and manger scenes are no longer allowed in Christmas displays, no more Christmas songs that tell about the birth of our Savour are allowed to be sung in school or public buildings . Preaching that homosexuality is a sin from behind the pulpit now is, or soon will be, called a hate crime. We now have thousands of unborn babies being legally murdered in this country every year and they call it "planned parenthood" or "birth control". In God's eyes it is murder.

In all their wisdom, some people, have now elected a president who has stated that we are no longer a Christian Nation. That should send up alarm bells to all true born again Christians, no matter what their race, age, or gender are. The president elect stated that we are a nation of Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhist. The last part of the statement he made is correct. It is true there are more and more, diverse religions in our country and they are growing bigger and stronger everyday, yielding more and more influence in our government, but the first part of the statement our president elect made is wrong. We are {still} a Christian nation. This country was founded on Christianity, in other words Christ Jesus, The Solid Rock! On That Solid Rock our country has stood, believed in, and fought for, for over two hundred years . All the other is sinking sand! This nation was founded on the Christian Principles that are found in God's Holy Word. Turning from that Solid Rock will bring total destruction to this country.

Some of you who read this article might not agree with me on what I'm about to say. Some might think that I'm carrying this to far. If we do not watch and pray most earnestly for this nation and our Christian beliefs then we too in the very near future will be having our church services ever so quietly

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Strife In The Midst of Believers: Remember the story of Abram and Lot? How they were surrounded by hostile neighbors who were not friendly, hospitable, or sympathetic to them or their families. It would seem that in circumstances like this that they would have been united and pull together as one, but this was far from the case with Abram and Lot. Instead small-minded jealousy over trivial things was separating and tearing them apart. Abram, being close to God saw the strife, the discord, the conflict, the, quarreling, the disagreements and decided to do something about it. He knew all the arguing was displeasing to God. He had love in his heart for Lot and his family so he gave Lot first choice of the way to go. Notice how Abram turned away wrath with a soft answer, I pray thee (In other words please). Abram had the right to dictate and demand which way he wanted to go but he gave the freedom of choice to Lot. What a peace maker. Lot's heart was full of greed and he looked at material things, sad to say the same way some professing Christians do today. Lot saw the country in which Sodom was located and how it would make him an excellent place to live. This was a superb choice from a worldly point of view. In such a place with all the good ground and water he would certainly thrive and become very rich. This was all that Lot was looking for. Christians must realize that the grass is not always greener on the other side. It will only bring heart ache and trouble as it did to Lot. How many Christians jeopardize the good of their souls for the prospect of worldly advantages and worldly gain?

The same thing happens today, like it did with Abram and Lot, with a large proportion of the Christian world. Christians often fight and quarrel concerning small material things when the devil is at work all around them. There exist in our world, today, unseen forces that employ darkness to accomplish their evil purposes. Those purposes are neither kind, nor benevolent and you will find no unconditional love there.God's people had better wake up to that fact! Some Christians will strain at a Nat and swallow a camel. Rivalries, arguments, contentions, and disagreements between believers hinder God's work. Disagreements can hold the believer back and get in the way of progress toward very important goals. These things make a person self centered rather than love centered. Not only will strife hold the Christian's walk back, it will open the door for other things. We can see what happen to Lot and his wife. Let us all remember and not forget Lot's wife! It all started, in the very beginning, with strife and then the strife lead to other things. In today's world, we can see much strife among Christians, preacher against preacher, brother against brother, sister against sister, and so forth. This should not be. God cannot and will not work in the mist of such things. We must show and demonstrate the same kind of love as Jesus had for the church.

We can see the choices Lot made. He selected the very best of the land, even though it meant living close to Sodom and close to sin. This is the same problem that some Christians face today. Greed and the thought of living close to the world (Sodom) cause the Christian not to focus and concentrate on the true issues. The very issues of life. Lot had the paradise, the best of the green grass, and much water, happiness, such as it was, but Abram had the promise. Abram had the assurance from God that something would be done for him. Lot was looking at things materially. Abram was looking at things spiritually. As a Christian, in today's world, what are you looking for? Are you looking for the promise or the riches of this world?

Christians today need to look, as Abram did centuries ago, at the spiritual things and Our Creator will take care of everything else. Did you every stop and think why the battle against the evil forces in this world is so difficult and it seems like Christians are never getting anywhere. Why we take one step forward and two steps backward. I can tell you the answer to the major part of that. There is so much strife and fighting between Christians, The different churches and denominations fight over doctrine and other trivial issues, this leaves very little time for the real fight. That fight is against the devil and his demon allies, not against other born again brothers and sisters in the Lord, no matter what denomination they are. I want to ask you, the Christian, this question: "As a blood bought Saint of God do you want to win the battle against abortion, for the right to have prayer in school, against the homosexual lifestyles and other sinful things that are flooding our country? Do you want to keep Christ in our American Heritage? Remember this country was founded on Christian values. If the answer is yes then we must bind ourselves together in unity. No matter what denomination we are Baptist, Church of God, Assemblies of God, Nazarene, Wesleyan, Four Square, The Rock Church, independents, or any group that I missed, if we have been saved by the blood of Christ and our sins forgiven, we are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. It is time that we realized that and come together, united, as one church, with Christ at the head to defeat a common enemy. Let there be a gathering, a coming together, of God's people.

Remember the book of Esther? The Jews were about to be slaughtered throughout the land because of Haman's wickedness. Esther called for a fast and every single Jew fasted. They united together for a cause. Esther knew the value of unity and coming together as one. The Jews won and Haman lost! Now I'm sure that there were people from every tribe or the Jews, the tribes of Benjamin, Judah, and all the rest of the tribes of Israel that were united together for the common cause. With unity and God's help the Jews over came. Christians of every denomination can also be over comers if they would only unite together for the cause of a Godly America. America is in her last stages of moral corruption. This country is so far gone that it will take unified born again Christians of all denominations, coming together as one, fasting, praying, and crying out to God, with a common goal, and that is to save this nation.

Remember the upper room with the 120 believers? What did the believers have in common that day? They were in one place and they were in one accord. They were all in unity. Great things happen that day long ago, because of those saints being in one accord. There was a great out pouring and because of that Christianity spread like wild fire throughout the known world. As Christians let us unite in one accord, as the people did on the day of Pentecost, for a common purpose. That purpose is to bring Christ back into our schools, courtrooms, streets, public places, and, yes, our churches also!

Can you imagine what would happen if all the churches in this country were in one accord today? There would be no abortion on demand, no homosexuals marching the streets or walking the halls of our congress demanding special rights. There would be no such thing as not being allowed to have prayer in school or not being allowed to display the Ten Commandments in our court rooms. How true that old saying, "UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL!" As united, born again Christians we can have the victory in Jesus that so many of us sing about.

To put it on even easier terms that you can understand and to get the point of this message across let me put it in everyday terms, you can take a single match and break it. Two matches become harder to breaker and so forth. When you get up to about ten matches it becomes very hard to break and so it is with Christians when they are as one. They become even harder to fight against. How great it would be to say: "THE BATTLES OVER, VICTORY IS OURS, AND WE WON!"

Let me say this in closing and I hope that I'm not repeating myself to much; Christians must unite their self under a common banner to defeat Satan and his demons. I'm not suggesting a one world church, nor do I believe in a one world church by no means. What I am suggesting and saying is this; let us as born again Christians unite, stand up for Jesus and the Word of God, as a united people, with one purpose in mind, to win back our country and the world for Jesus Christ.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Sunday, January 4, 2009

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIER, MARCHING AS TO WAR! What a grand old song of the Church. We have heard this favorite for decades in the Church. I wonder how many Christians that sing this song really stop and believe in the words to the song. I'm sure there is a not many that do With these words we begin to see the war we are in. We are in a war against good and evil. We are in a conflict against same sex marriages, homosexuals, lesbians, abortion, drugs, alcohol, Muslim terrorist who want to destroy us for our Christian faith, Satan sneaking into the churches with false doctrine, and all sin that would and is bringing this nation and this world to its knees. How we handle this war is how our nation will rise or fall. We first must remember that we are not struggling against what we see, even though what we see is very real. Satan only uses people and countries that he has a grasp on to carry out and do his polluted work. We are in truth fighting Satan and his demon spirits. Flesh and blood cannot fight against this nor can it win the battle. So how do we fight it? How do we go to battle against it? How do we overcome it before it defeats us? This is a Good question, Paul tells in the book of Ephesians Chapter Six the following;

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.

Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; (Ephesians 6: 10-18)

After reading this these verses we can see we will never win the battle against the evil that is in this world in the flesh. We can call our congressmen and anybody else we want but without the help of God it is a losing battle. Without applying the principals of the scriptures above we will be defeated every time. We must be persistent in the fight. It is our responsibility as Christians, but we also need to put God in the battle. As Christians we can make a difference in this world and our country, but God must be in our efforts to conquer the evil. In all our efforts we need to put on that whole armour of God. Every man or women that we send to Washington, DC needs that armour. In their self they can do nothing except make more laws that really do not help. The basic idea is that we need to REPENT as a nation and turn back to God's Laws. It was good enough for my ancestors and it is good enough for you and me.

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Bill Patchett

There is nothing better than studying the Bible, the history it contains, the stories of love and compassion, and the prophecies that are fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled. All my life I have found great comfort in reading the passages contained there. If people would only read and study the Bible for a half hour a day they would see the beauty of this Book. They would see that the answer to all life's problems are found between those sacred pages. and they would also see why The Bible is and always will be the Greatest Book in the world. It contains the very word of God. I am a moral conservative who believes that Christian values are a big part of what makes our Country work.